The retail industry is a large and consistently important segment of the economy and, as a result, it is a highly competitive industry. Even in the face of increasingly popular electronic commerce options, retail spaces such as shopping malls remain a vital and growing segment of the retail industry. Mall developers, retailers, advertisers, industry analysts, and real estate consultants consistently make difficult business decisions on where to develop, what products to promote, what types of promotions to invest in, and other issues related to retail industry statistics, but many of these decisions have to be made with fairly limited information. If given access to a reliable source of information on retail industry traffic and pedestrian traffic in general, key decision makers in the industry could make much more efficient and effective decisions based on accurate information rather than conjecture. Information on pedestrian traffic is also valuable in a variety of non-retail planning scenarios.
The present invention is directed to fulfilling the need for accurate and consistently updated information on pedestrian traffic.